Hornbach Holding AG & Co KGaA

XETRA:HBH

Earnings Call Analysis

Q3 Earnings: Margin Growth Amid Market Softness

Despite market softness in large projects, our third-quarter strategy yielded a 1 percentage point increase in gross margins due to successful supplier negotiations and disciplined cost management leading to only slight changes in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). While ongoing customer engagement in small-scale renovations remained satisfying, we observed a decrease in discretionary spending. Our stance in international markets strengthened, boosting our industry resilience. Strategic acquisitions, like Seniovo, and investments in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, including the rollout of additional photovoltaic systems, enhance our long-term value proposition. We've realized operational cash flow improvement, and our strong equity ratio continues to underpin our financial stability.

Operational and Financial Growth

The company has demonstrated resilience with sales performing slightly better than group levels, achieving a slight net sales decrease compared to last year's record performance. Despite a challenging environment in Germany showing a 2.9% downturn, this was compensated by a 0.4% uplift in international markets. The management's emphasis on cost discipline and gross margin improvements has proven effective, leading to a 1% gross margin increase in Q3 due to successful supplier negotiations and managing lower commodity prices.

Digital Commerce and Market Positioning

HORNBACH Baumarkt's e-commerce business flourished, with net sales accounting for 12.9% and a substantial 15% growth in customer accounts over the first nine months. This indicates robust digital platform engagement and the strength of the interconnected retail approach. Market share growth in key international markets like the Netherlands and Czechia underscores HORNBACH's growing influence and competitive edge in the sector.

Strategic Acquisition and Service Expansion

The strategic acquisition of Seniovo, a startup focused on barrier-free bathroom renovations, complements the company's existing portfolio of services. This move aims to enhance customer offerings and solidify HORNBACH's do-it-for-me service proposition, aligning with long-term industry trends in home improvement and catering to a broader customer base.

Commitment to Sustainability

In an effort to reduce the carbon dioxide footprint, the company has installed 6 new photovoltaic systems in the third quarter, bringing the total to 32 systems with nearly 15,000 kWp output. Such actions reflect HORNBACH's active participation in energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives, aligning with broader environmental concerns and commitments.

Fiscal Discipline and Profitability

Adjusted EBIT saw a modest 1.7% decrease, a stabilization made possible by the improved gross margin and rigorous cost management. The sale of a small piece of land contributed minor positive effects. These factors, combined with successful personnel cost containment and continued investments in IT and innovation, are strategic moves to actively steer gross and EBIT margins towards sustained profitability.

Robust Cash Flow and Capital Expenditures

The company's inventory reduction strategy significantly improved operating cash flow in the third quarter, rising from EUR 25 million in the previous year to EUR 114 million. With an adjusted free cash flow of approximately EUR 306 million after nine months and a Capital Expenditure (CapEx) of EUR 149 million, which partly went into strategic investments, the financials demonstrate prudence and a strong commitment to growth and modernization.

Solid Foundation with Future Guidance

The company's equity ratio remains robust at 45%, enhancing financial stability. Looking ahead, HORNBACH maintains its guidance, anticipating sales and adjusted EBIT to align with the mid to lower range of market projections. This cautious optimism is backed by the company's fundamental strength and strategic management to navigate short-term challenges and capitalize on long-term industry trends.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q3

[Antje Kelbert, executive]

Good morning, and welcome to our Update Call for the Third Quarter and first 9 months of HORNBACH Holdings for the fiscal year 2023-'24.My name is Antje Kelbert, Head of Investor Relations. Today at 7:00 a.m., we published our financial results, comprising the period from the 1st of March until the end of November 2023. Welcome, and good morning also to our CFO, Karin Dohm, who will be our host and presenter today and will later also take your questions.Please note the entire conference call, including the Q&A session, will be recorded and made available with the transcript on the company's website afterwards. Please also take note of this disclaimer, which is valid for the entire presentation and for the Q&A session.And now, I'm delighted to hand over to you, Karin, to give us an overview of the latest set of numbers.

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Thank you, Antje. And a very good morning, and a warm welcome also from my side.Earlier this year, we claimed an improvement of our gross margin and ongoing cost discipline. Our measures are now bearing fruit. And with our Q3 results, we are able to underline a sequential margin improvement and an effective cost management. Our merchandising team has successfully focused on their negotiations with suppliers, making sure that lower commodity prices are feeding through. We are very pleased that we managed to improve the gross margin by 1 percentage point.Our sales are in line with our expectations, also reflecting normal seasonality in Q3. In line with the overall macro environment and customer sentiment, we are observing softness in large projects and discretionary spending. However, customer frequency and engagement in smaller renovation projects remain on a satisfying level. Let me remind you that last year's sales were influenced by so-called panic purchases and heating components and, therefore, bring a base effect to this quarter.During the 2023 calendar year, we were able to increase market shares in several of our key international markets, underpinning the resilience and the strengths of our business. All in all, we are very pleased with our latest performance against the backdrop of the challenging trading environment. Given the results achieved in the first 9 months, we confirm our guidance and expect sales and adjusted EBIT to come out in the mid- to low range, in line with market expectations.While we are navigating short-term challenges, we feel very confident about the underlying long-term trends in our industry. Structural trends such as energy efficiency and overall aging housing stock and demographic development will continue to drive DIY spend on home improvement. We steer the company by investing into these trends and by expanding our assortment and dedicated services to our customers.As we informed you a few weeks ago, we acquired Seniovo, a start-up that specializes in serial and standardized bathroom renovations, with a special focus on barrier-free conversions. They've automized the whole value chain to provide customers with a full-service package from offer compilation to applying for grants and obtaining permissions from landlords, through to professional implementation. Having such a great partner, Seniovo, onboard provides a complement of our existing do-it-for-me services business and will help to attract more customers. By teaming up our partner networks, we are creating added value for HORNBACH Group and achieve an enhanced ecosystem.Let me also highlight our progress in several ESG-focused initiatives. Rolling out our strategy to reduce our carbon dioxide footprint and switch to renewable energy, we have installed additional 6 photovoltaic systems in Q3. In total, we now operate 32 photovoltaic systems running with a total output of almost 15,000 kWp, so kilowatt peak. Further rollout is going ahead in the next years.In addition, we are analyzing alternative heating systems for our existing stores. For example, we are currently connecting 2 more stores to district heating. On the same note, we are also helping our customers to reduce their carbon dioxide footprint by expanding our assortment of products for insulation and own energy generation. In some countries, we are now able to offer complete rooftop systems, and we also extended the choice of balcony solutions and have introduced small wind energy generators.Let us now take a deep dive in our financial, starting with the recent sales development. Our sales have been resilient in the first 9 months, with group net sales only slightly below the previous year's record level. HORNBACH Baumarkt, including the online retail, performed slightly better than the group. A more challenging picture in Germany with minus 2.9% was balanced by a positive contribution from our international markets with an increase of 0.4%. As a consequence, on the Baumarkt level, the share of international business further increased to 51.7%. The positive development of customer frequency that we experienced in Q2 has continued into the third quarter. The trend of slightly reduced average ticket size keeps proceeding.On the positive side, customer engagement in smaller tickets is staying strong. Keep in mind, last year's sales were exceptionally driven by so-called panic purchases against the backdrop of impending gas shortages. This applies specifically to product categories such as electric heaters, power generators or gas and wood. Throughout this year, we are seeing good demand in articles with our renovation assortment. More recently, with heavy snowfall in some regions, we have also seen strong demand for winter assortments. We're very pleased with the performance of our private labels, which represent an increasing share of sales. This shows that customers clearly appreciate our value-for-money offering across all ranges. We will continue to lean into product innovations that simplify the project, saving our customers time and money.Drilling down to country-by-country sales development, we see the following pictures. The aforementioned strong base effects and the difficult consumer environment impacted specifically our Q3 like-for-like sales at HORNBACH Baumarkt. We are also starting to see deflationary effects towards the end of the quarter, where prices in some categories are normalizing from exceptionally high levels in the previous year. Amid the softer market development across the sector, HORNBACH continued to increase market share in key international markets. We continue to see a tremendous development in our market position, specifically in the Netherlands with an increase of 1.1 percentage points and a plus of even 1.9 percentage points in Czechia. Switzerland has also contributed positively to our market share gains.Let us continue with the e-commerce part of our business. The share of e-commerce in HORNBACH Baumarkt net sales stood at 12.9% after the first 9 months of 2023-'24, still well above pre-pandemic levels. Customer engagement across our interconnected platforms in all regions remains on a high level. Customer accounts have increased significantly in the first 9 months of the year by 15% to EUR 4.1 million by end of November. More than half of e-commerce sales continue to be fulfilled through our stores, either through Click & Collect or our store delivery centers. This underpins the strength of our interconnected retail approach. We are able to leverage the value of our big box store network, which is serving as both, point of sale as well as storage and fulfillment facility.Let us now take a closer look on the cost development. We are very pleased with the development of our gross margin, which increased by 1 percentage point in Q3. We are now seeing the results of successful negotiations with our suppliers over the last month to ensure that decreasing input prices are adequately passed through. We have also achieved a decrease in selling and store expenses in Q3 by strict cost management. Nevertheless, the cost ratios reflect some deleveraging from our top line results. Personnel cost increases due to higher wages could be limited by careful headcount management. We also continue to invest into technology and IT to foster innovation and increase process efficiency.Consequently, we have achieved the adjusted EBIT development as shown on the next slide. In Q3, the adjusted EBIT has further stabilized with only a slight decrease of 1.7% compared to previous year. This was driven as set by our gross margin improvement and our tight cost management. Regarding non-operating items in Q3, we recorded minor positive effects of EUR 1.4 million, mainly from the sale of a smaller piece of land. We clearly stick to our ambition to actively manage gross margin, as well as EBIT margin going forward. As mentioned, we expect gross margin improvement to continue as effects of lower moving average purchasing prices continue to flow through. We also aim to keep personnel costs down by managing our headcount carefully and using natural fluctuation for reductions in some areas.Our successful inventory reduction had a significant positive impact on our operating cash flow in Q3, which improved from EUR 25 million in last year's quarter to now EUR 114 million. Let me remind you that the 9-month period working capital includes repayments from our reverse factoring program of EUR 250 million that happened in Q1 this year. All in, we had an adjusted free cash flow of roughly EUR 306 million after 9 months. CapEx spend was at EUR 149 million in 9 months, of which 43% was spent on land and real estate, mainly for new stores. CapEx Also includes the acquisition of Seniovo and some minor amounts for our marketplace and S/4HANA. For the full-year 2023-'24, we expect around EUR 100 million of gross CapEx.Let us end the journey through our financials by looking at our balance sheet. Due to our successful inventory rightsizing, the consolidated balance sheet decreased in total by 6.7% to EUR 4.4 billion. The equity ratio came in at 45%, further strengthened and continues to represent a very comfortable level. Allow me to remind you that our balance sheet contains significant value from owned land and real estate, which amounts to roughly EUR 1.8 billion as of November 30. Real estate is conservatively accounted for at amortized cost. Our balance sheet underpins our robust financial position, and contributes to our conviction and the resilience of our business.Let me emphasize again that we see our company very well positioned to capture medium- and long-term growth in the home improvement sector and that we are very confident about the overall development. However, global political, geopolitical challenges and European macroeconomic softness are here to stay short term. With our everyday low price strategy, combined with strong own brands, we are a reliable partner for our customers for all their big and small renovation needs. We will continue to emphasize cost and inventory management while making targeted investments to improve operational efficiency and maintain our strong market position.And now, I'm very pleased to take your questions.

[Antje Kelbert, executive]

Yes. Thank you, Karin. We will now start with the Q&A session, and I would like to hand over to the operator. Please go ahead.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Thomas Maul from DZ Bank AG.

[Thomas Maul, analyst]

I got one. It's on Austria. It would be nice if you could elaborate a bit on the market share development in Austria and what's going on there?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes. Thanks for your question. Actually, we are, as you can imagine, not really pleased with that development. I think we had this year, in specialists, some competition challenges due to outstanding activities from our local competitors in Austria. And therefore, I said, this is not exactly where we want to be heading. Nevertheless, very much in line with what we are investing into currently. Also in the German market, we feel that we're in a good position to regain that in the future to come, but obviously, not necessarily that's what we wanted to see last year.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Miro Zuzak from JMS Invest AG.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Can you hear me?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes, we hear you loud and clear. Thank you.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Good morning from Zurich. There don't seem to be many questions. So, I'm happy to ask mine in this case. I see from the cash flow statements that you spent roughly EUR 23 million this year for acquisitions. Is this mainly Seniovo?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Those acquisitions contain Seniovo, yes, but we are also having some other immaterial investments that contains partially IT investments. For example, our S/4HANA project, which is ongoing for this year and the next years to come. Also for our marketplace where we are starting to work on platform business, which enables even more customer services and a larger variety of SKUs for our customers.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Okay. But the latter that you have mentioned, they are probably under the normal investing cash flow. So that's -- that would be a [Foreign Language], probably S/4HANA? Or is it in [Foreign Language]?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

The CapEx capture all these categories. Yes. Exactly.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

[Foreign Language] EUR 22 million. This is mainly Seniovo.

[Karin Dohm, executive]

That's mainly Seniovo. Yes.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Okay. Can you please tell more about basically the strategy behind the store and about this acquisition, basically? Is this like a change in strategy that you want to basically build on top of your stores like value-add services with third-party brands? Or is it basically a HORNBACH brand, which you have in basically like a shop-in-shop concept in the store? Or can you just tell me more about this acquisition and whether this is like the beginning of the new strategy that you would like to deploy?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes. Thanks for that question. I think it is absolutely in line with our strategy. It actually enhances our services. As you are probably well aware, we offer at HORNBACH a variety of services that add value for customers beyond the transactional element of our business, where it's about making sure that we provide the right goods for customers, obviously, providing the right service, advice, anything that is related to their projects that might also be some advice around what to use, how to apply things, what grants to take, what regulations are important when you think about energy efficiency tools and other things. So providing service jointly with providing products is, in general, a very strong piece of our DNA.So Seniovo fits very well into that because, obviously, their focus is very much on making sure that persons who are maybe not as agile as they were once and therefore, need to have some changes in their bathrooms to have better access, to have barrier-free accessibility to their bathrooms, if you think, for example, about taking out a bath top and bringing in a floor-even shower to make sure that everybody can stay in their flat or in their house as long as they want. That is the area of focus of the new role.And providing this service is an end-to-end approach, not only, so to say, the shower, but also everything that is related to that, including the professional that can then help you with bringing, so to say, the sheer change into the bathroom into action and making sure you also have the -- any potential support on the financing side. That is the excellence in which Seniovo has built their business case in the last years already. And therefore, we are totally convinced that it is a very strong addition, currently focusing on our German market, obviously, which, as you know, is our largest anyhow. So, this is the one where we can join our forces and our network and therefore, that adds a lot of value to our proposition for customers.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Okay. And like as of when was it consolidated?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

That is since December 1st.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Since December 1st. That's okay. That's just for Q4 then. And what are the sales roughly?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

We don't provide those details.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Okay. But can you share whether this company was profitable or whether it was loss-making?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

As said, we're here, obviously, in a -- as written, this is a start-up. So, we are on a strong growth path, and we're just consolidating since December 1st.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Okay. And this will be booked in Baumarkt?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

It is a subsidiary of Baumarkt.

[Miro Zuzak, analyst]

Okay. Good. So, we can -- okay. Good. And just to understand -- sorry to maybe calculate the revenue, if you don't want to share or give us like a guidance, how much sales you're going to consolidate next year from this acquisition, which is actually typical that companies give the kind of guidance if they make an acquisition, how much sales they're going to consolidate in the upcoming year, frankly speaking. But maybe you can give us an idea. So like how many bathroom conversions they make next year maybe and whether the volume is basically sales? You know what I mean? So if you make a bathroom conversion, maybe it's like EUR 10,000 or so. Whether this is sales then or whether there are -- whether the sales are going to be a different measure, maybe just a markup or something? Do you understand my question? That we can have an idea how much sales you have acquired here because otherwise, for us, it's a blind flight basically to make our models for next year.

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes, Miro, thanks for your questions. I think -- let me answer as follows. Happy to provide more details on those whilst we walk through our next fiscal year. Obviously, this is all brand new within the group, and we are currently building on that. So actually, I think it is from a business case, as we elaborated, it's a very good addition and any further details very happy to walk through as we are meeting next time.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Dr. Norbert Kalliwoda from Dr. Dr. Kalliwoda Research.

[Norbert Kalliwoda, analyst]

Can you hear me?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes, clear. Loud and clear.

[Norbert Kalliwoda, analyst]

Yes. I want to ask you generally about wages and prices. Can you give us some idea? Also the number of employees, it was a little bit reduced. Can you give us some trends about wages, prices and the number of employees, please?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes. Sure. Happy to. So number of employees, right, as you said, we reduced them, if you compare that status as of end of November and end of February, for example, when we started this fiscal year. There are 2 elements driving that. Obviously, as I said, we are keen to make sure we rightsize and have, therefore, the best mixture of people that we need to provide excellent customer service on the one side. Sometimes also, of course, a couple of seasonal elements, which obviously now is more on the low season side if you think about our activity level. And then in addition to that, we were also keen to use some fluctuation as highlighted in our statements to optimize also with regard to our expenses.On the other side, as we have throughout the whole calendar year '23, we partially also had that already in '22. And we will see some minor effects even in '24. There are salary increases across all countries where we operate. That is with different intensity and in different shapes and forms. But in the last 18 months, we saw those literally across all countries. Nevertheless, as I said, going forward, we expect that to flatten out. Some minor increases here and there. There's, for example, a smaller, legally required for all employers in the Netherlands as of January 1st. But beyond that, there will be way less salary increases based on our current expectation in '24 than we saw in the last 18 months.

[Norbert Kalliwoda, analyst]

Yes. And a second question. The CapEx of 7% intangible assets, what is the situation of 7% of the whole cake? Or was it the growth of CapEx? What is this? Maybe some words about the intangible assets, please?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes. Absolutely. This is the -- the pie chart is the absolute figures. It's not a comparison to previous years. That is when you go from line to line. So obviously, we had this year so far EUR 149.2 million. And in the 9 months of the previous year, we had EUR 158.6 million. So a little bit less, so to say. And the percentage points, the 7%, which you allude, that is a mixture of investments, as highlighted into IT, which we capitalized into our market stores in our Seniovo investment and in the marketplace.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from the line of Thilo Kleibauer from Warburg Research.

[Thilo Kleibauer, analyst]

Yes. I have 2 questions. The one is a kind of follow-up on the headcount development and the headcount reduction. So in Q3, we already see a decline of around 300 and the number of employees. Should we expect a similar trend going forward for the current quarter? Or what are your plans? And maybe in which countries or in which categories you decrease the number of employees?And my second question would be regarding the stake in HORNBACH Baumarkt AG. Obviously, you further bought some shares. Maybe you can give us the current stake of the HORNBACH Baumarkt AG shares.

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Yes. Sure. With regards to the headcount, totally correct, that's roughly 300. We are not having, so to say, hardcore reduction targets with a specific number. I think there are 2 effects. Literally, we were very keen to make sure we are conscious in our headcount. And therefore, this number or the reduction of it is driven across all areas of the group that contains partially a couple of headcount reductions in stores, also partially in the administration. Of course, we are really investing also into our back office IT to make sure we have there any operational efficiency and simply can free up people from certain activities. So therefore, overarchingly, have less necessity for headcount, and that is all done by using then natural fluctuation.And on the store side, we were really keen to even more focus on the aspect of where do we need advice capabilities, where do we maybe have less necessity for certain presence and how can we optimize this. Always thinking about customer experience, but nevertheless, being conscious of running also there our operational activities in the best form possible. So looking forward on that side, yes, we will keep that path. Will that bring exactly the same 300 when we talk next time? I simply can't tell you. I wouldn't necessarily expect because at the same time, we are growing, of course. We are opening not every quarter, but every once in a while, if you want to say so, we are opening new stores. You know, we opened in summer, one in Nijmegen. And if you look, for example, into more details, you see normally opening a store brings along roughly 100 to 150 people. So it also is a little bit driven in the ups and downs by the question, when is which store opened that might have an impact there. With regard to the Baumarkt shares, we are currently at 93% more or less, a little bit more.

[Thilo Kleibauer, analyst]

Okay. Maybe one additional question regarding the e-commerce business. You highlighted that more than half of the online orders were fulfilled through your stores. Have you shift something to the stores because there's more capacity due to lower frequency and lower sales from your centralized warehouse structure? Or is it pretty much the same from the structure, how you handle the online orders?

[Karin Dohm, executive]

Structurally, it's pretty much the same. I think what is important to note is that we think we really see that as a sign of the successful ICR strategy that we run. That means customers really like apparently and use it, therefore, to stop their buying process, if you want to say so, somewhere online, in the app, in the web shop, anywhere in between. And then they might choose their some goods, and they might then come to the store and ask for some advice or they might do any type of interaction between the two worlds, so to say, the virtual and the physical. And therefore, I think that is the main driver behind that. That is the reason why we're also saying that this interconnected retail is really the key to customer satisfaction and making sure we use that as good as we can to provide here really a satisfactory journey for our customers. But it's not that we proactively shifted some activities in that shape and form.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Seems there are no more questions at this time. So, I hand back to Antje Kelbert.

[Antje Kelbert, executive]

Yes. Thank you very much for your questions, your interest this morning.We also would like to invite you to meet us at the upcoming Capital Market event throughout the coming weeks and months, starting into the new year. And whenever you have questions or the need to discuss any topics, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Investor Relations team. So thank you all for your interest and time this morning. We wish you and your families a happy holiday season, some quiet and relaxing days and a healthy new year.Thank you, and goodbye.